Agents: Between Layers
by Stormhawk
Summary: A short story about a program trapped between the layers of reality.


**Title: **Between Layers

**Author:** Stormhawk

**Rating: **PG

**Disclaimer: **

Matrix universe and associated characters: Wachowski brothers. 

ATS universe: co-owned by me and Mordax. 

Sula, Jonas, Serica: Me 

**Word Count: **1078****

**Summary: **Short ficlet about a program caught between the layers of reality.

**Notes:** Does everyone remember me mentioning Sula? Well, if not she was the first reincarnation of Serica from Jonas' first matrix (not the perfect matrix that the machine made, the one he made before coming up with the new scenario) Well, she ain't quite dead. 

**Please read and Review.**

_Am I even here?_ The being asked the silent universe. She wasn't even sure.

Her world had been a lie; she hadn't wanted to believe it. Where she had come from they didn't lie. There was no need to, they hadn't been familiar with the concept, they were too used to peace. 

Then the god of the world had forcibly pulled her out of the world and told her the truth. She hated him for it; she would have preferred not to know about the lies and reality of her reality. At least then she wouldn't be all alone now.

Sula was utterly alone in the existence she was now. She was trapped between the layers of existence. She could perceive or travel in all three layers but she couldn't interact with any of them. She could walk the lush rainforests of the matrix or the desert of the real world. She could even skirt around Jonas' system. 

She was immortal and alone, she couldn't even die. 

She had been alone for over two hundred years, well now well over two hundred, it was closer to three hundred now. She could listen and watch anyone she wanted but could never have anyone see or hear her. She wondered why Jonas hadn't found her and deleted her; she must show up as a glitch on his system. Death would be preferable sometimes to the silent world she was in now. 

She could even remember every time Jonas changed history. That was something no one else could do. She now understood how it all worked, Jonas' explanation that day combined with watching the world growing up and into computer technology.

Technology had never been important to her people, just enough to build a house or collect the day's food. Sula, her name meant the sun. Her name had been given to her because of her golden hair, honey-blond, warm as autumn and as shiny as the water on a summer's day. 

She was tall, almost six feet, her hair ended just below her shoulder blades. She had sky-blue eyes, blue like a summer's sky and worthy of a piece of poetry. 

"Who's there?" a voice asked. 

Sula looked up the long hallway, the backdoor hallway the exiles called it to the one open door. An old lady stood looking up and down it. 

"Come on, who's out here?" she asked as she lit a cigarette. 

"Can you see me? Can you hear me?" Sula asked as she ran down the hall. This old lady was a special program; she was called the Oracle and seemed to know more than most. She was an intuitive program. Of all the ones in this world or the one where the rebels lived she had the best chance of being able to perceive her. 

The Oracle narrowed her eyes then shook her head. 

"Please! You have to be able to see me!" Sula screamed right in her face. 

The old lady blinked. The Oracle knew something was there, she had suspected it to be one of The Merovingian's programs, but had dismissed that, she could feel a distressed mind in the hallway. Then she had suspected it to be a ghost, because unlike the twins some could become completely invisible not leaving a visible trace. 

That's why she had lit the cigarette, as the smoke would betray if there were anyone there or not. 

Not seeing anyone she had been prepared to let it go, just one of those things. 

But something had stopped her. 

Sula continued to scream at the old program, she could tell she was on the edge of the oracle's consciousness. For the first time in the longest time someone was about to acknowledge her existence. 

The Oracle went to shut the door so Sula punched her, her people hadn't known about violence but Sula had picked up some things, even know she didn't need them. 

Her hand went straight through her; whenever she touched someone they felt nothing more than the 'someone's walking over my grave' feeling. That was humans anyway; sometimes she caused programs to glitch or had no effect on them whatsoever.

The Oracle was no bothered by whatever was on the edge of her abilities to perceive, whatever it was it was unlike anything she had ever encountered before. 

"Please," Sula begged. "I just want someone to know that I'm here." 

One of the small children called to the Oracle from the next room, the old lady shrugged.

"Please?" 

The door shut in her face. 

Sula walked away depressed, but then again there was no reason for despair. No more than normal anyway. It's a wonder she wasn't insane after all these centuries of being alone. Maybe she was insane and she didn't even know it. 

She ran a hand through her hair and walked down the hall. She then walked through the hall door into the green system code. From there she focused and shifted herself into the real world. This world was almost as dead as hers, but this one still had a chance. If it didn't become too boring Jonas wouldn't delete it and they wouldn't have to die. 

Like everyone she had known had. 

Her family, her friends, the cute poet who had written a poem about her from the next village…

None of them existed now, they had just been deleted. It was so terrible to know that by pushing a few keystrokes a man, nothing more than a human, could erase entire existences. 

Pieces of their coding remained, but none of them. They had merely been recycled and reconstituted into new 'characters' as he had referred to them. This was nothing more than a game to him. 

It was sickening. 

And even worse was the fact that she was less real than the others as she had been based on a real person. One that actually existed and wasn't just bits and bytes. She was just a copy that he could torment. 

But today was no different; she had these same thoughts everyday.

Even though she was unable to interact with the people or universes, it didn't stop her from walking up stairs or knowing where a surface was, there were rules even in this non-existent place. 

She curled up in an old tunnel of the real world, wrapped her cloak around her and tried to get some sleep. At least in her dreams her people still existed. 

The End.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~  

Well, what you think of that?


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